China plug-in electric vehicle sales in 2017: almost four times those in the U.S.

Compared to previous years, overall car-sales growth in the U.S. has all but plateaued at around 17.5 million. China is doing little better, with growth reaching just 3 percent for 2017. But the Chinese new-vehicle market is undergoing a seismic shift in which types of cars are sold. Want proof? China sold 777,000 new-energy vehicles—electrics and plug-in hybrids—in 2017, a whopping 53-percent increase over 2016. READ MORE: Plug-in electric car sales in Dec: 2017 set a new record, Bolt EV ends strong The massive growth in plug-in vehicle sales can be attributed to government subsidies that support domestically produced models, reports Automotive News China. Of the total new-energy vehicles sold, 579,000 are passenger vehicles. The remaining sales are commercial vehicles, such as electric buses and delivery trucks. The vast majority of the NEVs sold in China were battery-electric vehicles, some 652,000 in all. Nio ES8 high-performance […]